Listen to what he says after criticizing congressional Republicans such as Paul Ryan for criticizing Obama's stimulus plan while accepting money from it for their districts --

HAYES:When the recovery happens, and if the recovery happens under a Barack Obama administration in the second term, retroactively the stimulus will take on this very haloed view. People will go back and look at it and see it in incredibly favorable light. (crosstalk) But everything hangs, as much does, as much as frankly the general opinion of the liberal project hangs on the re-election of Barack Obama, frankly. How that story is written is a story that is written about whether Barack Obama is re-elected or not.

If and when -- in other words, it hasn't happened yet. Put another way, it may never happen. As for the stimulus plan imbued in the future with a "very haloed" glow, Hayes, Maddow and left wingers like them are already basking in its pallid illumination as they wait and wait and wring their hands for a recovery that's always just over the horizon.

If and when our economy recovers -- to borrow from Hayes -- it will come despite Obama's efforts, not because of them.